Arkansas State Plant Board – Apiary Section Information Packet Why honeybees are not just good for the beekeeper… Why should the public care about honey bees? Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion in added crop value, particularly for specialty crops such as almonds and other nuts, berries, fruits, and vegetables. About one mouthful in three in the diet directly or indirectly benefits from honey bee pollination. While there are native pollinators (honey bees came from the Old World with European colonists), honey bees are more prolific and the easiest to manage for the large scale pollination that U.S. agriculture requires. In California, the almond crop alone uses 1.3 million colonies of bees, approximately one half of all honey bees in the United States, and this need is projected to grow to 1.5 million colonies by 2010. The number of managed honey bee colonies has dropped from 5 million in the1940s to only 2.5 million today. At the same time, the call for hives to supply pollination service has continued to climb. This means honey bee colonies are trucked farther and more often than ever before. Honey bee colony health has also been declining since the 1980s with the advent of new pathogens and pests. The spread into the United States of varroa and tracheal mites, in particular, created major new stresses on honey bees. Is there currently a crisis in food production because of CCD? While CCD has created a very serious problem for beekeepers and could threaten the pollination industry if it becomes more widespread, fortunately there were enough bees to supply all the needed pollination this past spring. But we cannot wait to see if CCD becomes an agricultural crisis to do the needed research into the cause and treatment for CCD. The cost of hives for pollination has risen this year. But much of that is due to growing demand. Some of the price increase may also be due to higher cost of gas and diesel and other increases related to energy and labor costs. Commercial beekeepers truck hives long distances to provide pollination services, so in particular they must deal with rising expenses. Apiary Section Mission To protect honeybees in order to maintain viable honeybee populations for the purpose of pollination in Arkansas Methods: 1) By equitably administering laws and regulations in order to minimize and slow the spread and negative effects of diseases, harmful pests and unwanted species. 2) By educating beekeepers in modern apicultural techniques and the citizens of Arkansas of the importance of honeybees. The Apiary Section is part of the Plant Industry Division of the Arkansas State Plant Board. The Apiary Section is a regulatory agency that will follow and enforce the Apiary Laws and Regulations stated in Circular 5. We provide a useful service to help protect honeybees in Arkansas. Through this service we also help educate beekeepers through our inspections, presentations, newsletters, and other services. The Apiary Section consists of four full time employees and some seasonal help. Please call the office at 501-225-1598 if you have any questions or comments. The full time employees are: Mark Stoll, Apiary Manager - [email protected] Emily Rodriguez, Apiary Secretary - [email protected] Daniel Plyler, Apiary Inspector for Southern half of state - 501-590-2259 Danny Brewer, Apiary Inspector for Northern half of state - 501-231-0537 The Apiary Section handles all regulatory issues concerning the Honeybee. We provide free inspection services for beekeepers that want to sell, or move their bees, or if you are having a problem and just want an inspection. In the past we provided educational programs. Now educational programs and research is handled through extension services. However, we will still help out in that area upon request. If you are interested in beekeeping there are a few things you will need to know, and hopefully they are all provided to you in this information. If you do become a beekeeper the first thing you will need to do is register your Apiary Location. The registration application is provided on this disc. Registering your location will let the Apiary Section know where your bees are located if we need to contact you about any bee-related problems in your area, and it will also put you on our newsletter list. The Apiary Section sends out a quarterly newsletter that will contain various types of information. We will also be able to notify you of meetings in your area. Current Apiary Laws, Forms & Required Documents AFRICANIZED HONEYBEES FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q. I have noticed a strange looking bee around my home. How can I find out if it is the Africanized honeybee that I've heard so much about? A. The answer depends on where you live in Arkansas. You can contact your local county Cooperative Extension Service agent for assistance in getting information on identification of bees and other stinging insects. If the bees are aggressive and threatening you may contact the Apiary Section of The Arkansas State Plant Board at (501) 225-1598, to report any aggressive bee swarms. Q. What is the scientific name for Africanized honeybees and can they mate with other honeybees? A. The Africanized Honeybee is a hybrid of a strain of honeybees from Africa, Apis mellifera scutellata, and basicaly any other honeybee that it can mate with and produce viable off-spring. In the United States this could be Apis mellifera ligustica (Italian honeybee), Apis mellifera carnica (Carniolian honeybee), Apis mellifera caucasica (Caucasian honeybee), and Apis mellifera mellifera (Dark honeybee). Q. There are bees building a hive near our home. We walk past their hive a lot and them seem very calm and not dangerous at all, so they probably are not the Africanized honeybees, right? A. While bees are building a hive, they are not likely to sting. That is because they are busy building the home and do not have anything in it that they feel they must defend. Typically, honeybees only sting when they feel that something is threatening their baby bees and honey. So, until the hive is built and full, the honeybees will seem very docile or calm. That is true of both regular European honeybees and Africanized honeybees. The only way to find out if honeybees are European or Africanized is to have a sample analyzed. But you should go ahead and have a trained pest control person remove the hive that is under construction before the bees set up house and become defensive. Q. A hive of bees seems to be building a hive in the outside wall of our house. Since they're in the wall, they probably won't bother us. Is it alright to let them live there or should we think about having them removed? A. Bees should never be allowed to build or remain in the walls of a structure. For one thing, they will become very defensive of their hive once they have made honey and begun to develop baby bees. That means people and pets that happen by the hive could be stung by the defensive bees. But bees in walls also cause a problem with the building structure because of the massive amounts of honeycomb and honey that can be stored. Killing the bees from such a hive is extremely difficult to do without completely tearing into the wall. Also, all the honeycomb and honey has to be removed or it can become rank and attract other pests. The best thing to do is to never allow bees to build in the walls. Make a check of your home and other structures on your property to see that they are no holes that bees can enter. If you find that bees already are building in a wall, call a pest control operator immediately to get them removed. Q. We recently found out that bees are living in the wall of our garage and want them removed. Can we kill them by spraying the hole where they enter or is there a better way? A. No, simply spraying the hole of an entryway into any hive will not kill all the insects that are inside. Call a pest control operator who is knowledgeable about bee removal for assistance. Q. I heard that soapy water is a simple way to kill bees. Why is that and how can I do it? A. Soapy water is one approved way to kill bees, but it has to be done with caution. The reason that soapy water kills bees is that the outer body of the bee has a waxy coating. In just the way that some commercials show soap cutting through grease on a dirty pan, the soap works through the waxy body and allows the water to enter, in effect drowning the bee. But it has to be done with caution, because enough soapy water has to be applied at once to all the bees or they will get mad and begin to sting before the effect can take place. If most of the bees are unreachable in a hive, therefore, spraying soapy water on the few bees that can be seen outside of the hive will not have much of an impact. Q. I was out in the yard behind my home and noticed a huge mass of bees all balled up in a tree. I've never seen a swarm like that and I'm afraid that they are going to attack my family and pets. How can I make them leave? A. Swarms of bees is a phenomena that is most likely in the spring and fall each year.